World Championship – Opening ceremony, Anand has white

5/11/2012 – The World Chess Championship was opened in the Tretyakov Gallery on Thursday in spectacular style and with plenty of prominence. There was the playing of anthems, speeches by dignitaries, and the drawing of colours – Anand will play white in the first game. But the highlight is the musical part of the evening, which includes a pre-teen pianist whom we shall call the Magnus Carlsen of Music.

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Opening ceremony in Moscow

Watch the HD video stream of the openings ceremony – select HD and click
on full screen for maximum enjoyment.

The highlight of the evening was the musical part, with some extraordinary
performers.

To get you in the mood start with Roman and Barbara, who play at around
20:56:20
into the video. After being enchanted by the two prepare to be stunned by...

... Roman playing solo at around 21:02:40 into the video –
dazzling the audience and
all of us. Let us be the first to say it: this lad is the Magnus Carlsen of
Music! (Got it?)

We have not been able to identify this remarkable pre-teen, who is bound to
be playing in the international concert halls very soon. Would anyone who has
the exact name and information on him please write to us so we can add it to
this report.

Then at around 21:07:00 a professional pianist, one of the most popular
classical music
performers of his generation: Denis Matsuev, who has scores of videos in Youtube

Finally, at 21:22:00, the two play together – sorry, Denis Leonidovich,
the kid won this one

And if you are still up to it, here is a video report of the opening ceremony
by GM Robert Fontaine for Europe
Echecs – it includes interviews with the likes of Anatoly Karpov and
Mikhail Gorbachev.

Scoreboard

Players

Rtng

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Tot.

Perf.

+/–

Vishy Anand

2791

Boris Gelfand

2727

Schedule, video coverage, commentary

During the match for the World Chess Champion title, a video broadcast in Russian
and English will be available on the official game website. The chess portion
of the broadcast will be commented on by leading grandmasters and chess experts
including Nigel Short, Jan Timman, Peter Leko, Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk.
Studio commentary will be made by press center guests – former world champions,
World Cup holders, and winners of major international tournaments. And for the
first time during a video broadcast of a chess tournament, there will also be
a separate studio where well-known art historians will discuss the role and
place of Russian art in the context of Russian history and world artistic culture.
The Russian and foreign audiences will get acquainted with the key themes of
works of Russian visual art from icon painting through the Soviet period.

See also

11/28/2018 – The moment we've all been waiting for! Live games (for Premium members) from the 2018 World Championship match in London. Every two games will be followed by a rest day until Game 12 (if necessary) on November 26th which will be preceded by an additional rest day. All rounds start at 15:00 UT (London time) / 16:00 CEST / 10:00 EST. If needed there would be a rapid tiebreak match on Wednesday, November 28th. | Photos: Patricia Claros

See also

8/27/2018 – Live games and commentary from Saint Louis! Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian tied for first place, while Caruana also tied for fourth place in the Grand Chess Tour standings with Wesley So, forcing a playoff match to be held on Tuesday. | Graphic: Saint Louis Chess Club

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.